Mexican Restaurant Extra Credit Project

As an extra credit project for my Spanish students I would like them to eat and document a meal at an authentic Mexican restaurant. Because I teach at a magnet high school my students come from literally every corner of the city. I am familiar with lots of Mexican restaurants but not enough areas to give all my students the opportunity to get a great meal and earn the points while not having to travel an extreme distance. I was hoping to get the advice of LTH folks to recommend restaurants by area or neighborhood because the addresses alone do not mean much to me as an inexperienced traveler to remote parts of the city. What I'm looking for are places where my students can go with friends or family for a realtively inexpensive meal (many do not have much in the way of disposable income) that may give them the opportunity to try things not offered by places like Pepe's and hopefully, use their Spanish. I would also like them to be in places where it is conducive to sit and eat rather than takeout.
Thanks very much,
Thomas

Mexican cuisine is pretty popular at LTH and there are lots of reviews posted. Just paging through the "Eating Out in Chicagoland" forum will reveal numerous possibilities, typically with pricing info and, frequently, even pictures.

For a quickstart to immediately begin with a list of dining destinations doable for $10 or under, you might want to start here If you had 10 bucks. You could then select the Mexican places on that list and x-ref via searches for other, more specific, reviews of them.

To help you become more familiar with the relative locations and neighborhoods of your diverse group of students - or at least as it relates to LTH destinations they may be near - I'd suggest trying the Chicago Chow Map.

Another excellent resource for location assistance is (assuming Windows + Firefox browser) the CTA Map Overlay for Google Maps.

For a pretty central location with easy access to public transit, lots of diverse Mexican offerings, and low prices (a veritable trifecta) I can suggest the Maxwell Street Market Guide. While we aren't talking enclosed, sit-down restaurants here I would think the opportunity to engage in conversational Spanish with the owners/vendors of these establishments would be great reinforcement of their teaching.

One question, though - if this is your Spanish language class why limit them to only Mexican restaurants? There are a number of other Spanish-speaking cultures with tasty and affordable cuisine available in Chicago as well but, of course, you know that.

I'd like to second Kman's suggestion regarding Maxwell Street Market -- and he raises an excellent point about addressing Spanish-speaking cultures other than Mexican (though aside from the Salvadoran pupusa people and perhaps a few others, Mexico is pretty much the dominant culture represented at Maxwell).

One other teaching angle might be to have students write about (or simply list) different states of Mexico that are represented at Maxwell (e.g., Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoucan, D.F. Ocotlan, etc.). As is also the case with Africa, many of us in the USA tend to see Mexico as a single culture instead of a diverse collection of people with distinct cultural backgrounds) -- using different foods as a springboard might be a way to open up a larger discussion of differences between, say, Oaxaca and D.F.

Another advantage of Maxwell is that it always takes place on Sunday, which is a family time, and you can really eat quite a lot for not much money (plus you can shop for tube socks, t-shirts, hand tools, etc.)

Hammond

Wow. The last thing I was expecting was teaching advice. My students are doing a unit on Mexico. Hence, Mexican restaurants. Of course I have seen many of the restaurants listed on the forum. I was hoping for something along the lines of " I live in (x neighborhood), two good Mexican restaurants nearby are........"

Wow, that's pretty uncharitable imho. You come here asking for help, people give you well reasoned thought out responses, and you complain that it is not in the format you expected? If you will only accept information in the exact grammatical style you desire, how about you do us a favour and let us know about your demands before we make such an egregious error.

I live in Evanston and there aren't any decent authentic mexican places in this town. I know of others but since they aren't in my neigborhood I fear running afoul of your stringent requirements.

I really hope you don't treat your students like this.

Just goes to show that you can't always judge one's tone from a post. Not my intention whatsoever. Your post was much more critical and I certainly meant no disrespect to Kman or David. Just clarification about my general topic. Did I specify grammatical style? No. About every third time I post I regret it because of the shit that I get from people like Octarine who feel the need to scold. Now I feel like a mistreated student.

Okay, getting back to the original question. I'm going to disagree with Hammond and Kman: I don't think Maxwell Street would be a good destination for your students' purposes. Yeah, they might utter a few Spanish words there, but after saying "Dos tacos de carne asada, por favor" and "Gracias" the interaction is over.

Instead I'll recommend three inexpensive sit-down places, all on the near Southwest Side.

(1) In general, the La Villita neighborhood (26th St. west of California) is one where the waitstaff is likely not to speak English and so you have to use some Spanish. A specific place your students could go to would be La Kermes, a big place with lots of booths, lots of families eating there, and plenty to choose from on the menu. (I think their gorditas with rajas and queso are particularly good.)

(2) In Pilsen, it seems, the restaurant workers are more accustomed to serving English speakers but I'm sure they'd be happy to help students practice their Spanish. I recently recommended Nuevo Leon in another thread, and it would be a good choice for high school students as well. It's on 18th Street just east of Ashland.

(3) A little further south, on Ashland just south of Cermak, is a branch of La Condesa, another mid-level, sit-down restaurant which won't be too expensive. There are other branches in other neighborhoods, which I expect would also be good choices.

Taqueria La Kermes
3002 W. 26th St.
773-523-1666

Nuevo Leon
1515 W 18th Street
Chicago, IL
312-421-1517

La Condesa Restaurant 3
2230 S. Ashland Ave.
773-376-0078

other branches of La Condesa that I was able to find on google:

La Condesa Two
1003 N. Ashland Ave.
773-276-5121

La Condesa 5
2908 W 59th St
Chicago, IL 60629
(773) 737-2700

(Are there also La C 1 and La C 4? I have no idea...)

Amata wrote:Okay, getting back to the original question. I'm going to disagree with Hammond and Kman: I don't think Maxwell Street would be a good destination for your students' purposes. Yeah, they might utter a few Spanish words there, but after saying "Dos tacos de carne asada, por favor" and "Gracias" the interaction is over.

Amata, you suggest some great places, though as you know I am an unabashed Maxwell St. Market booster, so before discounting it as an instructional environment, consider that Maxwell St. ensures:

1. Multiple language contacts. At a restaurant, you have the host (momentarily) and then the server. If they don't or won't speak Spanish with you, you're stuck. At Maxwell, you would have literally hundreds of people to speak to. If the first person you try your Spanish on does not respond, move on.

2. Opportunity for discussion of non-food items. Obviously, we're all comfortable conversing compulsively about la comida, but at Maxwell, you could also converse about, you know, socks and other stuff besides food.

3. For the linguistically shy (students who are hesitant to, as we say in juggling, throw the third ball into the air), it might be nice to try out your Spanish without your whole family looking across the table at you. At Maxwell, the situation is less formal and stressful for someone in the early stages of language acquisition. And unlike a restaurant, you're dealing with people who may feel they have somewhat more time to chat than, say, a waitstaff person bringing orders and clearing dishes.

Anyhow, those are just three more reasons I love Maxwell Street.

Hammond

Thomas D. wrote:Wow. The last thing I was expecting was teaching advice. My students are doing a unit on Mexico. Hence, Mexican restaurants. Of course I have seen many of the restaurants listed on the forum. I was hoping for something along the lines of " I live in (x neighborhood), two good Mexican restaurants nearby are........"

I don't see where I in any way attempted to give you teaching advice. I asked a simple question - "Why just Mexican", only knowing that you said you had a Spanish class and had directed them to go to Mexican restaurants. You have a reason for doing so and that's all you had to say, not to accuse me of something I most certainly didn't do.

Okay boys, let's not let ourselves get too offended.

Criticism as been given and taken, so I feel we should take Amata's lead and go back to talking about food (with footnotes on instructional design for anyone, like me, who is interested in that kind of thing -- after all, this is Non-Food Chat).

Hammond

Actually, Amata, why don't you fess up and admit that La Condesa was MY suggestion, which I so generously offered up whilst we munched chicken tacos dressed with cabbage and chiles güeros at lunch this fine day? I'm deeply offended...



( )

On a more serious note, I would recommend the following: Mi Cafetal (next door to Nuevo Leon). Mercedes, one of the owners, is an extremely friendly lady and also one who is very proud of Mexican culture and the Spanish language. And with regard to her patience, I can recall that, one day when I was there and was coming off a period of using Italian a lot, she happily put up with my quasi-Argentine-like lenguaje misto. If a small group of students goes in and they try to speak Spanish, she will oblige them.

And the food's quite good too...

Antonius

Taqueria(s) la Oaxaquena! I'm not sure what neighborhoods they are in, but one is at 6113 W. Diversey (Cragin? Portage Park?) and the other is near Belmont at 3382 N. Milwaukee (the far reaches of Logan Square?)

Very tasty--lots of posts on this forum will attest to that--and the people running the place seem really nice and willing to chat. Plus several items that you don't necessarily see at every taqueria in the city, and a comfortable, pleasant atmosphere. I would mention the margaritas but I don't want to give your underage students any ideas...

Hi Thomas--it might be helpful if you gave people a little guidance as to what parts of the city your students live in. So far, you've gotten solid advice on Mexican places in Pilsen, Maxwell Street, Avondale (that's where 3300 N. Milwaukee is) and the area near Riis Park (probably Cragin morphing into Montclare). Do you need suggestions in Rogers Park, Humboldt Park or the south or west side (foreign territory for me, I'm a northsider...)?

Hammond makes a valid point; let's not make people apprehensive about posting. There's so much knowledge on this board, it's intimidating enough to join in the discourse. Thomas is trying to use Chicago's restaurants to give his students a little insight into Mexican culture. Help him out. Anna

I think if you searched La Quebrada, there is one on the southwest side. Also Las Islas Marias, one pretty far west on Grand, a new one in Rogers Park.

Also someone with more recent experience might chime in about places in South Chicago--there's certainly a large enough Mexican community there.